The Soul of a Woman

by Isabel Allende

A new memoir (she’s already written a couple) from Chilean literary legend Isabel Allende. Now close to 80, she remains exuberant about life and a staunch feminist. Isabel Allende’s father was the cousin of Salvador Allende, the Chilean president who was overthrown in the military coup of 1973 that brought Augusto Pinochet to power. It would turn into one of the  bloodiest episodes in political history, and Allende herself ended up in exile in Venezuela. But it was there that she started writing her first and probably still most famous book, The House of the Spirits.